


Just a Kid Without a Shadow

by Kat-the-earnest (Rowantreeisme)



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Humor, Not Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase Two Compliant, Original Character-centric
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-30
Updated: 2017-05-04
Packaged: 2018-09-20 23:21:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 15,943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9520586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rowantreeisme/pseuds/Kat-the-earnest
Summary: Discontinued. Rethought a bunch of stuff, what is here doesn't make sense. Is not going to be updated.





	1. Chapter 1

“Cap, we’ve got trouble!” Tony shouted into the com, ducking and weaving around bursts of blue light, skidding along the ceiling of the hallway before returning fire without a second thought. Him, Captain, and Hawkeye were in the middle of a hydra base, the third one they had been tasked to destroy after New York.

“Iron man? What's your status?” Cap barked over the comms. 

“I don't know yet, but I think there's someone else in here with us,” Tony said over the radio, blasting his way through swarms of hydra guards, and walls, towards the heart of the Hydra base.  
“What do you mean there’s someone else?!” Clint barked, presumably picking off escapees from outside the base, if the strangled screams and twangs from his end of the comm were any indication. 

“I mean” Tony paused, blasting yet another small group of soldiers to the ground, “that I have seen way more downed Hydra agents than I should be seeing, considering that Nat’s not here right now.” Tony paused to dodge a blast, twisting and blasting right back.“  
Most of them seem to be around the cells, and It looks like our “friend” is heading towards the server room if the trail of unconscious and/or otherwise incapacitated guards are anything to go by. I’ll check it out.”

“Got that, Iron Man. Me and Hawkeye will clean up the rest, you be careful. Whoever it is taking Hydra out could still be a threat.” Steve warned, “and remember-”

“Yeah yeah: check for powers, recruit if possible, subdue if necessary. I have done this before, you know.” Tony interrupted, rolling his eyes, pushing open the door to the next room and stepping over a Hydra agent who was lying on the ground, whimpering.

Unsurprisingly, this room was also filled with guards. Tony sighed and continued blasting through them. Tony grunted as one of the goons got a lucky shot off, catching him through the joints of the armour, spinning around to send a return shot straight to the offending shooter. He downed the rest of the hydra agents, standing up from the crouch he had been dropped into.  
“Sir, the computer bank appears to be in the next room.” Jarvis told him helpfully, displaying a thermal readout in the HUD. “and I might suggest hurrying, there seems to be an… altercation in progress”

Tony snorted in response and promptly kicked the door down. 

Tony took in what was happening in the room lightning-fast, eyes flicking from the odd half-dozen Hydra agents circling the room to the lone figure in the centre, holding her side and glaring at the guards. 

“I would recommend standing down, I mean you don't really have to, but it would be much, much healthier for you in the long run!” Tony drawled, raising both arms towards the closest guards, the missiles in his shoulder plates popping up to target the rest.  
As soon as the guard nearest to the girl looked away, dropping his guard, she sprang into action, leaping towards one guard and using his momentum to swing them into their neighbour. More guards swarmed inside, and although the girl was holding her own surprisingly well for someone who looked to be fresh out of some sort of beating, she still only one person. And a goddamn kid. 

“Goddamnit!” Tony swore, releasing the missiles and firing his repulsors at the guards who looked to be the most trouble, taking care not to hit the girl still slashing at hydra agents.  
“J, gimme a scan on this kid, ASAP!”  
“Tony? What’s the situation?” Steve’s worried-sounding voice sounded over the comms, along with the sweet, sweet bell-like noise of his shield slamming into Hydra skulls. That was a good sound. He liked that sound.

“Gotta gimme a minute here, Cap!” Tony grunted, no longer having the room to shoot at the enemies, he started punching them into the ground. Soon, the seemingly endless influx of Hydra agents ceased, leaving him a clear view of the girl who was in the room earlier. She was still fighting, ducking under fists and laser beams alike, seemingly before they had even started moving, then attacking viciously as soon as they paused for breath, quick flashes of a knife aiming for tendons and critical muscles. Tony winced involuntarily as she ducked under a sweeping fist, the unfortunate agent crumpling as she cut the back of his knees. 

“Sir, preliminary scans show no unusual energy sources emanating from the girl,” Jarvis said, flashing up the matching readings on the HUD.  
“Huh. So she’s human?” Tony asked, casually blasting a couple other agents as he walked towards the computer bank at the far side of the room, leaving Jarvis to target the remaining soldiers.  
“It would appear so, sir,” Jarvis replied.  
“Other than the fact that she’s a teenager with no weapons or armour other than an army jacket and a knife taking out about a dozen hydra agents at once?” Tony said cheerfully, tapping on the keyboard in front of him while letting Jarvis monitor the fight, occasionally alerting him if the newcomer needed any repulsor-based assistance. 

“Other than that, sir, yes. She is completely normal” Jarvis deadpanned, automatically blasting a hydra agent who got just a little too close to scoring a hit. 

The last soldier dropped like a sack of potatoes just as Tony finished downloading all the data he could, and the girl dropped with him, clutching her side where tony was beginning to see a worrying amount of red staining the dark green jacket. 

“Shit, Jarvis? Is she hurt?” Tony spun around, scans in the HUD showing the probable injuries. Tony hissed in sympathy, the scan showing a large laceration on her right side, a couple cracked ribs, a sprained wrist, and many, many bruises. Cracked ribs sucked. That he knew from experience.  
“Cap, what’s the ETA on a med team?” Tony barked into the comms, crouching next to the girl even as she scooted away from him, her eyes flickering around the room, wide and scared, completely different from the determination he had seen when she was facing off with the hydra agents.  
“Med team’s 5 minutes out, should give me enough time to clear the rest of the building if you're done with your section. Are you hurt?” Steve snapped, worry softening the harshness of the tone. 

“No, I'm fine. My section’s clear and I've got the files. Remember when I said that there was someone else in here?” Tony stopped talking long enough to pop the faceplate, hoping to calm the kid enough to stop her edging towards the door, brown-green eyes still flickering over him, the knife gripped tightly in the hand not holding her wounded side.  
He heard Steve suck in a breath, definitely seeing where this was going.  
“Well, it's a kid. And she’s hurt. Bad.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The kid needs medical attention and steals granola bars.

“Shit” Barton muttered over the comms. “How old?”  
Tony continued to move slowly closer to the girl, taking his helmet off gently as he approached.  
“I don't know, but definitely not over 18. J, run facials. I wanna know who she is.” Tony muttered, watching the girl’s eyes dart between him and the comm still in his ear. Tony sighed and purposely relaxed his stance. 

“Hey, it's ok. Medical help is on the way. I’m not gonna hurt you” Tony says, speaking as soothingly as he could, as if talking to a wild animal. That metaphor was certainly spot-on, the girl was acting almost exactly like an injured bird Barton had brought home once. All darting eyes and twitching movements, joints visible through scabbed skin and unkempt hair.  
The girl yelped as she backed into the wall, looking infinitely more panicked as she realised that she was trapped, the door out of her line of sight.  
“Shhh shh, it's ok. I'm not gonna hurt you” Tony soothed, deciding not to move any closer in case she tried to bolt. 

“Med team’s here, en route to your location. Standby.” Rogers said over the comm, and Tony could hear voices in the background that mean that SHIELD has finally arrived to do clean up.  
“Gotcha Cap. Tell them to be careful. The kid looks pretty spooked” Tony replied, still speaking carefully. “And tell them to hurry. I think blood loss might be an issue pretty soon” he added, looking at how her hand had slipped around the knife, holding it shakily, but still pointed at him. Tony sat back on his heels, waiting until the med team got there. 

“So, kiddo. Any chance you can tell me your name?” Tony asked, smiling and holding eye contact. The girl coughed, clearing her throat before answering in a low, halting voice.  
“Kat. My- my name is Kat” the girl - Kat, answered, looking up at him to gauge his reaction.  
“Well, Kat, the med team’s gonna be here soon to fix you up.” Tony said, eyeing the blood still continuing to stain the floor. “You might have to stay at a hospital, though. This might not be something field medics can fix.”  
Unsurprisingly, at the mention of a “hospital”, Kat flinched, grip tightening on the knife and raising it slowly to eye-level.  
“No. Hospitals.” She almost seemed to force the words out, tripping over the pronunciation of the words. Accent, maybe? Non-native speaker? Tony shook his head slightly to clear it. Despite how intriguing this kid was, now was not the time. Raising his hands in a placating gesture, tony spoke easily. “Ok, that's fine. No hospitals. Totally get that, I mean, hospitals suck. Even worse than SHIELD medical, and that is certainly saying something.” The comm in his ear beeped, and he glanced up to the open door, out of kat’s line of sight where a team of harried field nurses were waiting with a stretcher. 

“Ok, Kat, the field team’s here. Can they come in and help you?” Tony asked, keeping his voice even and low.  
Kat, her eyes still flicking around the room, nodded slightly and slowly put down the knife, but didn't release it completely. Seeing the nod, the medics swarmed in, two of the better medics (in Tony’s opinion) moving in to assess the state of her injuries and get her onto the stretcher. Tony stood, making to head back out to where the Captain, Hawkeye and Bruce would be waiting, when Kat spoke.  
“Stay, please.” Her voice was rough, and there, again, was the slight tripping in her words that suggested that she did not grow up speaking solely English. Tony shrugged and turned. At least he’ll have a (mostly) valid excuse for missing debrief this time.

“Sure, kid, I’ll stay” Tony shrugged, broadcasting it through the comms so his team would know where he was.  
He picked his helmet up and put it back on, leaving the faceplate up so both his hands could be free. The doctors worked efficiently, stripping her jacket off and pulling up part of her shirt to get at the cut, padding it with gauze and wrapping it before getting her into the stretcher. Kat yelped in pain as the two medics hauled her onto the stretcher, her eyes still wide, grabbing at the jacket as a younger medic made to put it in a biohazard bag. There was a short and slightly amusing game of tug-of-war, which promptly ended when Kat glared at the medic and bundled the retrieved jacket into her arms with a huff. 

Tony stepped forwards as two junior medics prepared to lift the stretcher, and took one end instead, waving off the one whose place he'd stolen. Kat’s eyes flickered to him, for a moment, looking not quite grateful, but a good deal less terrified than she had been before. Tony mentally shrugged, figuring that less terrified was pretty damn good, and started walking, following the medic at the front of the stretcher over the uneven ground. 

“Sir, I have run facial recognition, as you requested” Jarvis announced.  
Tony grinned. Nothing beat solving a mystery, even when the mystery is something as mundane as “who the fuck is this teenager and why is she in the middle of a hydra base,” and wow that should not be something that’s mundane. His life was weird. “Great, lay it on me! Who, pray tell, is our mystery hydra fighter?”  
Jarvis sighed in a rush of static and answered. “I am afraid that facial recognition scans show no matches”  
Tony started, nearly tripping over a piece of rubble but managing to not jolt the stretcher.  
“Jarvis, what do you mean there aren't any matches? There have to be matches. You can't not have matches!” Tony hissed, glancing at Kat, becoming more and more still in the stretcher, the bandages staining worryingly quickly.  
“Sir, I have cross-referenced everything. There are no matches in social media posts, no matches in government databases, and no matches from CCTV footage of the surrounding area in the past 3 years.”

Tony resisted the urge to scrub his hand through his hair, because, a) he was still wearing the armour, and b) he was carrying a stretcher, an activity that generally requires both hands.  
“Well, keep looking.” Tony sighed, looking back down at Kat. Kat’s eyes were drooping shut, but the hand on the knife was either worryingly or reassuringly steady, depending on your point of view. Tony was choosing to take it as a good sign because he was an optimistic and hopeful person. Ha-ha.

The small group continued to move through the building, swarms of shield agents parting around the stretcher, handling various parts of clean-up. By the time they had left the building, there was already a couple tents spread around, and the medic guided the stretcher towards one of the more obviously medical tents. Kat stiffened as Tony pushes the stretcher through the door, once again seeming alert, eyes flicking around the small setup, eyeing a basket full of needles warily.

Tony guided the stretcher towards an empty bed, and two other doctors appeared to help Kat into the bed. She was still wary, angling the knife to whichever doctor was closest, but blood loss and exhaustion were making her eyes dull and her reactions slow.  
Tony swivelled, beaming at Bruce as he stepped through the curtains, rubbing the disinfectant into his hands. Kat’s eyes flick to the newcomer, and Tony takes the fact that she doesn't instantly angle the knife towards him as a good thing. Bruce obviously does not see it that way.  
“Ahh. So when they said to meet you in the medical tent, they didn't mean as a patient” Bruce glanced at Kat, stepping closer slowly. 

“I’m guessing this is the “mystery guest” Barton told me about?” Bruce asks, not looking away from Kat. 

“Yup.” Tony chirped, stepping fully out of the armour and leaving it to stand guard in the corner. “Says her name’s Kat.”

Bruce nodded, not taking his eyes off Kat, only moving further forwards when she nodded at him. Tony glanced between the two, and quickly appropriated a chair by the bed, pulling out his phone and tapping away, squinting at the results on the screen. Jarvis really wasn't wrong. Well, of course Jarvis wasn't wrong. Jarvis is fan-fucking-tastic, thank you very much, but Tony was still surprised to see that yep, this girl does not exist in any pictures. Maybe she’s a vampire. Though she did show up on the suit’s sensors and is very conspicuously alive. Maybe not then.  
Tony was startled out of his thoughts by a pained hisses, looking up to see Bruce cautiously unwrapping the field dressing from the girl’s middle. Now that there was more light, the extent of her injuries became apparent. The cut stretched across her side, bruising radiating outwards towards her ribs. Bruce continued speaking in low tones to Kat, asking questions to which she replied with either a nod or a shake of the head. Not a talker, then.  
The knife has thankfully disappeared, presumably into the jacket lying beside her. Bruce finished up, carefully redressed the cut, and gestured for Tony to follow him out of the room. 

“She’s hurt pretty bad. She’s going to need stitches, and her wrist looks sprained. What was she doing in a hydra base?” Bruce asked, looking over his shoulder as he washed his hands. 

“I have no idea, and that's not the weirdest part” Tony replied, leaning against the tent supports. “The weirdest part is that J couldn't find out who she is.” Bruce turned, voice heavy with disbelief. “Jarvis couldn't find any matches? Really?”  
“Really really.”  
Bruce sighed. “Well, she’s going to need to be hospitalised. She probably has some internal bleeding along with everything else, and I'd like an x-ray to make sure nothing’s more than cracked.”

Tony grinned.  
“Well… I don't think she’s really the hospital type, if I'm being honest. Which I am. Honest, that is.”  
Bruce took off his glasses, rubbing the bridge of his nose.  
“We’re taking her back to the tower, aren't we”  
Still smiling, Tony clapped his hand on Bruce's shoulder.  
“We’re taking her back to the tower.”  
“Taking who back to the tower?” Steve strode into the tent, shield hanging off his arm, Clint trailing behind him on crutches.  
“Is this about the kid you found?” Steve asked, glancing at Bruce for confirmation.  
“Yes. She’s pretty badly hurt, and Tony seems to be correct in assuming that she won’t go to a hospital.” 

“Are we sure taking her to the tower is a good idea?” Steve asked, turning to Tony. “We can’t exactly just trust her, even if she is hurt. She was found in the middle of a Hydra base, after all.”  
“Yeah, because no innocent person would be in the CELL BLOCK of a hydra base.” Tony rolled his eyes. “She’ll stay in medical. Jarvis can monitor her and make sure she doesn't try anything fishy.”

Steve’s eyes hardened.  
“You think she was being held prisoner?”  
“That’s certainly what it looks like to me.” Tony replied, pushing off the wall and moving towards the curtained-off section containing Kat.  
“What do you think they wanted with her?” Clint asked, cocking his head towards the door.  
“Hydra is collectively a giant bag of dicks, but they don’t kidnap people for no reason.”  
“Clint, what are you suggesting here?” Steve’s voice was clipped.  
“I’m saying that everyone they’ve ever captured was either a threat to them, had something they wanted, or was a test subject. It’s reasonable to assume that this “Kat” is the same.” Clint finished. Steve still looked tense, hands clenching and unclenching on his shield.  
“Maybe she knows?”

The group looked at Bruce as he spoke up. Tony shrugged. “It’s worth a shot. Might try to get a full name as well.” Tony pushed the curtain aside and stepped into the room. Kat blinked and attempted to push herself upright, holding the knife out cautiously.  
“Easy there. No one here’s gonna hurt you.” Tony glanced at Steve and Clint, and they lowered their weapons, raising their hands placidly.  
Kat was still eyeing them warily, knife pointing directly at Steve even when Tony moved closer.  
He continued towards the bed until he was just out of stabbing range, and crouched down so he was at eye-level. Once Kat glanced back his way, he spoke.  
“We just want to help, so we have to ask. Why were you in that Hydra base?”  
Kat started, turning her head towards him, narrowing her eyes in consideration before she spoke softly.  
“I make trouble. They do not like trouble.”  
The accent was more pronounced this time, but Tony was still having a hard time placing it.  
Bruce nodded, still staring at Kat. Steve ducked his head, hand moving to touch the comm still in his ear, and looked up at the rest of them.  
“Wheels up in 5. Kat, you’ll be coming with us, OK?”  
Kat was still holding the knife, which had re-appeared after bruce had finished stitching her up, but she nodded, eyes trained on Steve as he exited the room. 

They were in the air 6 minutes later. Tony usually didn't ride in the quintet, preferring to fly the suit home himself, but everyone agreed that it would be best for Kat if he stayed. Kat seemed to agree as well, considering she had fallen asleep not long after she was secured in the quintet.  
“How long do you think she was there for?”  
Bruce broke the silence, looking up at Steve from where he was sitting. Steve paled, glancing over at Kat.  
“None of the cells had beds, or any indication of people being kept there.” Tony interrupted, “so either she wasn't there very long, or hydra didn't care if she didn't survive her stay.”  
Steve looked horrified, eyes locked on the girl's face, her eyes ringed with shadow and jaw tense, even in sleep. 

Tony and Steve helped maneuver the stretcher out of the jet, and into the tower when they landed a short while later. She slept on, but the hand clutching her knife tightened when they moved. Bruce went first, rushing off to the medical floor to get things prepared, and Steve and Tony followed. By the time they had gotten Kat into a proper room, Bruce was waiting with sutures.  
“Tony, could you wake her up?” Bruce asked, preparing the antiseptic and needle.  
Tony moved towards the bed, reaching to gently tap Kat on the shoulder, and quickly moving out of striking range of the knife as Kat woke up. The sudden movement jarred her injuries, and she hissed, looking around the room quickly.  
“Hey, it's ok! You’re on the medical floor of Avengers Tower. Bruce here is gonna stitch you up, and we might need to do X-Rays after.”  
Kat stared at him through his explanation, and lowered the knife cautiously when he finished. Bruce finished with his prep work, and slowly moved closer. Kat’s eyes snapped to the syringe in his hand and raised the knife again.  
“No. No drugs.”  
Kat snapped, words sharp and eyes hard as she stared down Bruce and his needle. Bruce backed away obligingly.  
“It’s just a numbing agent. For the pain.”  
Bruce spoke softly, looking Kat straight in the eyes.  
She shook her head.  
“No.”  
Bruce sighed.  
“If you're sure. I will warn you, getting stitches hurts a lot without anaesthesia or painkillers.”  
Kat held his gaze, and tucked the hand holding the knife into her jacket when he put the needle down.  
“I know.” She nodded, and Bruce stepped closer. Well, that little tidbit of information was worrying, to say the least.  
She bundled the jacket into a small ball, and set it beside her so Bruce could access the bandaging better. The bleeding seemed to have slowed somewhat, which was good.  
Kat winced when Bruce took off the gauze but didn't grab for the knife again. Tony winced in sympathy when he saw the cut. It wrapped from her stomach to her side, ending just below her ribs. She nodded at Bruce, and he began disinfecting and stitching the cut as gently as he could. Kat watched him carefully the whole time, wincing occasionally but, for the most part, keeping very still. 

After a couple minutes, Bruce finished stitching the cut and rebandaged it.  
“Would it be ok for us to do an X-ray? I want to make sure your ribs aren't too hurt, and your wrist might need a cast.”  
Bruce spoke as he washed his hands.  
Kat nodded and moved to sit up, swinging her legs over the side of the bed. Tony stood up, ready to… do something if she collapsed. Honestly, he was amazed she could still sit up, not to mention stand. The kid looked dead on her feet, from the dark shadows and gaunt cheeks, to the blood-stained shirt. Something needed to be done about that shirt. Wearing that much of your own blood is never comfortable. Tony knew that fact from experience.  
The x-rays went quickly, revealing that the initial assessment of 2 cracked ribs and a sprained wrist to be correct. More worryingly, however, was the amount of healed breaks. This kid had been through a lot, from the looks of it. 

Kat had fallen asleep once they got back to the room, tight lines drawn around her eyes, clutching her injured hand close to her chest. Bruce was off somewhere tending to Clint, and there was a general decision that someone should be in the room when she woke up. Tony drew the short straw.  
The jacket had been discarded on the side table, the blood making it stiff in spots. Most of it was around where the cut would have been, but there were spatters elsewhere. Tony wondered how much of it wasn't hers. Considering that she’d been slicing up Hydra agents not too long ago, he guessed a fair amount.  
Tony sighed and picked up the jacket, planning on getting it cleaned. The pockets felt heavy, and he flipped it open, rustling through them and setting what was in them on the side table. 

“Tony, please tell me you’re not stealing from the kid”  
Steve was leaning against the doorway, a small cut on his forehead neatly taped shut.  
Tony put the last object, half of a stale muffin, on the table and rolled his eyes.  
“Yes. My master plan: give an injured teen medical help to steal…” tony glanced at the table beside him “part of a bran muffin, a couple paper clips, a library card, and a bloody piece of paper. I’m getting the jacket cleaned. Duh.”

Tony looked back at the pile of debris taken from Kat’s pockets.  
“Well, if it helps, I don't think she was with Hydra very long. Hydra’s stupid, but not stupid enough to leave anyone with that many paper clips. They probably hadn't even searched her yet.”  
Steve looked relieved at that, then frowned.  
“Why is she still so… malnourished then? And injured? I thought that had been from hydra, but if she was barely there at all that wouldn't be right.”  
Tony had been wondering about that as well. The few scars that he could see on her arms, and the long healed broken bones spoke of years of hardship, not days.  
“No. It's not. We can try and ask when she wakes up, but for now it's best we let her sleep.”  
Steve sighed and walked over, taking the jacket from Tony.  
“I can deal with this.” He glanced at Kat. “and maybe bring some food up as well.”  
Tony smiled.  
“Thanks Cap.”  
“No problem.”

Steve left the room, and Tony pulled his tablet back out. Even if he was on kid sitting duty, he could at least get some work done. He idly picked up the piece of folded paper and opened it. The blood made it nearly illegible, and the blocky writing didn't help. Tony sighed and squinted at the writing. It looked like a list, some of the items crossed out. The items, however, looked like names. Becket, Miller, Anderson, Lincoln, Ryans, Bradley, Turner, and a quite a few others, some illegible, were all crossed out. There was at least double the amount that weren't.  
He sighed and flattened the list, then scanned it into his tablet.  
“Jarvis, cross-reference the names with... well, anything. I wanna find out what this kid’s been up to.”  
Tony said, folding the list closed and placing it back on the pile. Jarvis worked quickly, making the 6 names covered by blood readable.  
Tony swiped through the names, looking for any sort of connection. It would really help if he had first names. Shrugging, he left Jarvis to the search and continued on what work he could do on his tablet. 

Steve came back with a tray of food and the newly cleaned jacket about an hour later, Bruce and Clint in tow. Clint’s eyes landed on the search running on one side of the tablet and glanced at Tony questioningly.  
“The list was in her pocket. I’ve been trying to find out who the people on it might be, but no luck so far.”  
Clint hopped up onto the counter beside Tony and held out a hand.  
“Can I?”  
Tony shrugged and passed over the tablet, saving all his SI files and bringing the list up to fill the screen.

Bruce was checking various vitals, and Steve had moved to stand beside Clint after he put down the food, peering at the tablet over his shoulder.  
“Hey, this name, Miller. We’ve got a Hydra agent named Miller in SHIELD custody.”  
Steve looked up at Clint, who was still looking through the list.  
“Who brought them in?”  
“No one knows. Or knew, I guess. There was a security breach in the New York base, and they found her handcuffed to the stairwell. I guess that’s what she meant when she said she was causing trouble for Hydra. Hey!”  
Tony had snatched the tablet back and was furiously tapping into it.  
“Jarvis, Cross-reference the list with known Hydra agents.”  
In a couple seconds, profiles of the names on the lists popping up over the screen. Tony gave a low whistle when he saw the results. In total, there were 20 Hydra agents in custody that could very likely be attributed to Kat.  
“Well, the kid’s certainly been busy.”  
“Certainly explains why hydra wanted her.” Steve said. He looked proud, but also sad. It was apt. That’s what Tony currently felt as well.  
“Why is she doing this?”  
“You’ll have to ask her when she wakes up. For now, you should talk somewhere else. She needs her rest.”  
Bruce had finished his checks and was standing at the door, looking expectantly at Steve and Clint.  
Clint hopped off of the counter, standing beside Steve and turning to leave.  
“Tony, make sure she eats when she wakes up. She’ll need it.” Bruce said.  
Tony nodded and went back to working on his tablet. 

An hour later, Kat moved. She had curled up further, almost a ball, tight and stressed. Tony looked up, preparing to try and calm her down, but stayed quiet when he saw that her eyes were still closed. Nightmare, then.  
Tony was debating waking her up when she made a pained sound and sat bolt upright in the bed, pointing the knife she had apparently had under the pillow at him. Her eyes were wide and scared, taking in everything but not really seeing. Tony quickly raised his hands and watched as she hopped off the bed and bundled up her jacket and belongings. Tony cleared his throat, and Kat whirled on him, knife aimed at his throat. Her eyes flicked to the tray of food on the counter beside him and edged towards it, knife never wavering. She tucked two bagels, a handful of granola bars, and three juice boxes into her jacket, backed towards the door, and bolted.

Tony dropped his hands and ran towards the door, yelling at Jarvis to alert the other avengers and to lock down the floor. He tore around the corner, eyes locking on a cast laying in the middle of the hallway in front of the elevators. The door to the stairway was swinging open.  
“Jarvis! Where’s she headed?” Tony shouted, skidding into the elevator that Jarvis oh-so-helpfully had “commandeered” for him. He nearly crashed into one of the nurses, and brought up security footage on his tablet, watching as she rushed down the stairwell and through a door.  
“Sir, it appears that she is attempting to leave the building.”  
“Yeah, I got that part, thanks! How’d she get into the stairwell? I locked the damn thing down!”  
Tony yelled, running back out of the elevator when it opened on the ground floor, leaving the mildly panicked nurses behind. Ehh, they’d seen worse.  
Steve and Clint were standing in the lobby, tense and ready for a fight.  
“Sir, it appears that she… “disabled” the locking mechanism on the door” Jarvis sounded miffed when he spoke.  
“What do you mean she “disabled” it?! How?!” Tony skidded to a stop in front of the others and gestured to them to follow him to the stairwell.  
“It appears that the locking mechanism on that door is no longer attached to the door” Jarvis informed him, and Tony stopped dead.  
“You’re saying, that this kid, whoever she is, somehow separated the lock on the door FROM THE DOOR AND HER ONLY TOOL WAS A KNIFE?!” Tony yelled into his earpiece.  
The others looked alarmed, but whether it was at his outburst or the obvious security issues he couldn't tell. He pinched the bridge of his nose, forcing himself to calm down, and spoke.  
“Ok, ok, we’ll deal with that little issue later. Where’s she now?”  
“She is still in the stairwell, 4th floor”  
Steve nodded.  
“Clint, you take the elevator up, see if you can get her from above. I’ll go up from here, and Tony will try to intercept her here. I hope I don’t have to tell either of you not to use lethal force. Try and talk her down. We don’t want to hurt her any more than we have to, but we need to bring her in.”  
Clint nodded and darted into the elevator, Steve opening the door to the stairwell and slipping through, leaving Tony alone.  
“Sir, it appears that she has noticed Captain Rogers, and is exiting onto the second floor.”  
Jarvis announced, and Tony just had enough time to watch, horrified, as the security footage showed Kat, barefoot, leaping through a window and onto the street below. He rushed over to the doors in time to see her roll when she hit the ground, springing back to her feet like a cat (ha) and disappearing into the crowded street. He was not surprised to see Steve follow her, and was still standing there when Clint emerged to stand beside him.  
“Ya know, we really should have planned for her jumping out the window.”  
Clint was standing next to him, arms crossed but looking fairly impressed.  
“It’s what I would’ve done. I would’ve grabbed shoes first, though.”  
Tony looked at him, sighed, and went back to tracking CCTV footage on his tablet. He could find Steve easily enough, but Kat was nowhere to be seen. Steve seemed to realise that as well, as he ducked into an alley and came out shaking his head at the nearest camera.  
Tony sighed and ran his hands through his hair.  
Clint shook his head.  
“Well, Fury’s gonna be pissed. He’s been wanting to know who’s been “gifting” us hydra agents for months now.”  
Tony pinched the bridge of his nose and moved towards the stairwell, planning to check what, exactly, Jarvis meant when he said that the locking mechanism was “no longer attached to the door”. Tony was running equations in his head as he made his way up the stairs and had come to the conclusion that nothing short of either a diamond-tipped drill, large amounts of welding equipment, or an explosion of reasonable size could detach the lock from the door.  
This only meant that the fact that the locking mechanism was simply lying behind the door, both it and the door completely undamaged, much more surprising.  
“What the fuck.”  
Tony swore, before crouching down to inspect the lock closer. It was, as he first suspected, completely undamaged. Hell, it was still in its locked position!  
He stood from his crouch to examine the door, seeing the same thing. Nothing damaged, and no way in hell that the locking mechanism could have gotten out of the door without something being damaged.  
Tony turned as Steve and Clint climbed up the stairs towards him. Clint was holding the cast, which like the door, was impossibly undamaged.  
“No luck?”  
Tony asked, looking at Steve. Steve shook his head.  
“I saw her go into that alley, but when I checked there wasn't anything there.”  
Tony nodded. He honestly wasn't expecting anything else.  
“At least she took some of the food.” He turned back towards the door and kicked it. “I’m gonna have to take apart the whole damn door to fix this.”  
He pushed the door open and headed towards the elevator, not bothering to check if the others were following him. 

When they reached the lab floor, Tony walked straight to a screen and brought up security footage from Kat’s “escape” before bringing up the door schematics on another screen.  
They watched as she woke up, grabbed her things, and bolted down the hall. Between one camera and the next, she had the cast off and was dropping it on the floor.  
“How’d she do that?!” Clint exclaimed, leaning forwards to get a better look. Tony rewound the footage and slowed it down. She left the view of one camera, and in the next one the cast was being dropped on the ground. The blind spot was maybe a foot wide at the biggest, but she still hit it perfectly.  
“The cameras in that hallway aren't even visible. How’d she know where the blind spot was?”  
Clint asked, watching as the footage replayed over and over.  
“Sheer dumb luck?” Steve said, although he looked sceptical.  
“Can’t be. The gap’s only a foot wide. She’d have to be pretty damn lucky.” Tony was swiping through the door schematics, swearing under his breath. At this rate, he was probably going to have to replace most of the security system to make sure this didn't happen again.  
Seemingly finished with that section of the footage, Clint watched as she ran down the hallway, turning towards the stairwell. Tony wanted to scream when he saw that she had blocked the door with her body, doing something to the door before yanking it open and dropping the locking mechanism on the ground.  
“She’s gotta have some sort of powers. Right?” Tony and Steve turned to stare at Clint. “I mean, it can’t be tech or you would’ve found it, and no normal person can take off a cast that quickly unless they have literal noodle arms, not to mention the door.”  
“Well, I'll check Shield files, see if there’s any powered people who could do that. And by I, I mean Jarvis.” Tony said, finishing his diagnostics on the door and lock and grabbing a bag of tools. “And check for any more blind spots while you’re at it!” He shouted to the room, and left to call some contractors, and to revamp the security systems. Again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We know her name now! Or, at least, what she calls herself.


	3. Chapter 3

One Month Later

Tony spun in mid-air, avoiding a blast from one of the robots harassing New York. Shield was enforcing a perimeter, but they could only do so much from the ground. Hence why Tony was currently blasting robot after robot out of the sky before they could escape into the rest of the city. Steve and Natasha were on the ground, evacuating civilians with Shield, Clint was on a roof, picking off the robots that he couldn't, and Bruce was helping the med teams.  
“Hey, guys! You’ll never guess who just joined the party.”  
Clint said through the comms.  
“Please tell me that they’re a friend and not more robots.”  
Natasha replied from her position on the ground, where Tony could see her darting around, taking out robots with terrifying skill. She was covering Cap as he evacuated a building, herding terrified civilians to the safe zone.  
“It’s the kid we found in the Hydra base! Remember?”  
Tony started, narrowly avoiding being blasted out of the sky.  
“You’re kidding” 

***

“Nope.”  
Clint watched as Kat ducked behind a flipped car, waiting until the robots were close enough before leaping up and doing something that disabled them.  
She was scarily efficient, seeming to know exactly where to attack to disable the robots, and ducking to avoid shots before even Clint saw them coming.  
“How’s she looking?”  
“Tony, even I can’t tell someone’s health from 50 stories up, but based on the fact that she’s taking down ‘bots like a champ, I’d say that she’s better.”  
Kat was heading steadily towards one the buildings that was in the process of being evacuated, using cars as cover when needed. One of the robots got close, and Clint was about to loose an arrow when she spun around, disarming and somehow decapitating it in one movement. She hefted the gun and used it to shoot two others that were closing in.  
Clint let out an impressed whistle.  
“Well, she just figured out the guns.”  
“Really? Damn. good for her.” Tony said over the comms.  
Kat hopped over the car and ducked into the building. Clint could no longer see much of what was going on, but the occasional flashes of light from the windows suggested that the robots had somehow gotten inside the building.  
There were a couple more flashes, and a couple civilians exited the building, ducking and sprinting towards the Shield barrier. Kat exited a couple seconds later, hauling a Shield agent who looked to be unconscious. Once she was back out of the building, she plucked something from the agent’s ear and held it up to where Clint was standing on the roof, before putting it in her own ear and blasting a robot.  
“Tony, she has a comm from a Shield agent. I think she wants to talk to us.”  
“On it.”  
A couple seconds later, the comm in his ear beeped, indicating that there was someone else on the line.  
“Old warehouse, 11th Ave and West 42.” The voice, while speaking softly, only just above a whisper, was definitely Kat.  
“Excuse me?” Tony sounded slightly affronted.  
“That’s the source. Of these….”  
“Robots?” Clint asked. That was interesting, and lent more credibility to Tony’s theory that she wasn't a native English speaker.  
“Yes.”  
“On it!” Tony barked, the whine of the repulsors over the comms signalling that Iron Man was on the move.  
Clint loosed an arrow towards a robot who was getting a little too close to comfort, and Kat whirled back into action, shooting the robots that were converging on her and the downed agent. She leapt over a blast, and somehow twisted in mid-air, spinning to face the robot and hitting it dead-center with a blast. When the gun stopped working, she dropped it and began taking on the robots hand-to-hand. She was good, but with the amount of robots swarming her and the agent, she quickly became overwhelmed.  
“Cap, might need some help over here!”  
Clint was firing arrows as quickly as he could, but there was only so many of them he could take out at once without risking Kat or the agent. Steve tore around the corner into Clint’s line of sight just as one of the robots hit Kat in the chest with a piece of steel beam, throwing her backwards into a wall.  
“Kat, status!”  
Steve shouted over the comms, vaulting over a car before slingshotting his shield at the robots, preventing them from advancing on Kat or the agent.  
There was no response, the comm most likely thrown out with the impact, or worse. Clint hoped that it wasn't worse.  
All at once, the robots went dead, crumpling to the pavement in unison.  
“Ahh-ha!” Tony shouted over the comms, sounding extremely pleased with himself. Steve, no longer having to worry about the robots attacking him, put his shield on his back and began to sprint towards the pair on the ground. 

***

“We need medical here, stat!”  
Steve yelled into his comm, kneeling next to the agent on the ground, checking her pulse and letting out a relieved breath when he saw that she was still alive, just unconscious.  
“Cap? What’s the situation?”  
He turned to Kat next, lying prone against a wall, leg twisted at a painful angle. He was relieved to see that she was still breathing, and somehow, still conscious. She tried to move, to hold her head up to look at him when he got closer, but winced and stopped fairly quickly. Steve wouldn't be surprised if she had a concussion.  
“Kat’s hurt, broken leg and possible concussion, I don’t know what else.”  
Steve announced into the comms, moving closer so he could see what other injuries she might have. She opened her mouth up as if to speak, but started coughing, a few spatters of blood coming out as well.  
“Shit!”  
Steve closed the distance quickly, moving to lift Kat off the ground, but she held up a hand to stop him.  
“Don’t.”  
Steve was about to object, question why she didn't want to be moved, but she pulled her jacket away, showing a thin spike of metal protruding up from her side. He felt sick. From the angle he had been about to lift her at, he would have torn the spike right through her. She looked up at him, presumably seeing that he saw, and understood, because she nodded.  
“Careful.”  
Her voice was soft, and despite the fact that she was a great deal worse off than last time they had seen her, her eyes held only pained determination, none of the fear that had been so prevalent before.  
Steve crouched down next to her, noticing the bent piece of metal protruding from her back. It seemed that It was far enough to the side that it probably hadn't speared right through anything essential, but the blood she had coughed up made him think it had at least nicked something. She would very likely need surgery.  
“I’m going to pick you up now, if that’s ok?” Steve asked, staying still until Kat nodded.  
She made a pained whimper as he scooped her up, careful not to jar her leg or her side, but it was obvious that she was still in pain. Her teeth were clenched, and her breath was coming in sharp gasps. Her hands were fluttering around the spike of metal, not quite touching it, as if feeling to make sure it was still there.  
She winced as Steve picked his way over cars and broken robots towards the medical tent, eyes scrunched up tight.  
A few minutes later, Steve had reached the tents and was instantly swarmed by medics. They took one look at the metal and told him that they weren't equipped to deal with something like that. That, they said, needed surgery. Steve wasn't surprised.  
Neither he or Kat flinched when Tony dropped down beside them with Clint, popping the face plate open and studying the pair. Clint dashed off, presumably to wherever Natasha was, leaving just Tony, Steve, and the hurt girl he was carrying.  
“She ok?” Tony asked, turning his attention to Steve.  
“Does she look ok to you?” Steve raises an eyebrow. Even with the piece of metal hidden by her jacket, there is a multitude of other injuries that should be obvious. Her face was pale, and it looked like she was having a hard time staying conscious.  
Tony sighed. “No. I guess she doesn't. You want me to fly her back to the tower?”  
“If she’s ok with it,” Steve replied and glanced towards Kat’s stomach. It was obvious when Tony saw the spike.  
“Jesus.”  
“Yeah.” Steve sighed, and turned his attention back to Kat. To his surprise, her eyes were wide open, flicking between him and Tony.  
“You fine with Tony flying you back to the tower to get treated?”  
When she nodded, hesitantly, he passed her over to Tony without a second word. 

It was a quick flight, free from any fancy acrobatics or tight turns, just him trying to fly as smoothly as he could. Kat’s eyes were wide the whole time, but she didn't seem afraid. If anything, she seemed excited.  
Tony couldn't exactly blame her. Flying was one of the things he would never be able to give up.  
They touched down at the tower, where Bruce was already waiting with a stretcher.  
Bruce frowned at the piece of metal, and ushered them further into the tower.  
“We’re going to have to take that out and get her into OR quickly,” Bruce spoke quickly, throwing medical terms around that Tony only understood from his own injuries over the years, but he could tell it was bad.  
A couple nurses and a doctor came and wheeled her into the OR. Bruce was beside her the whole way, asking her questions as the doctors prepped for surgery. Both her and Bruce were whisked out of sight a second later. Tony didn't stick around after that, telling Jarvis to alert him if anything happened.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for reading! I don't exactly know how long this story will be, but I am pretty sure it will be long. I've got most of the big things planned out, but the middle bits? not so much. I might have to make this part of a series or something because I do want to explore Kat's backstory and while I can do that without flashbacks, there's some stuff that it just wouldn't work for.


	4. Chapter 4

Tony was in the middle of fixing his suit when Jarvis spoke.  
“Sir, it appears that Miss. Kat is out of surgery.”  
Tony flicked off the welding torch he was using and flipped up his mask.  
“Really? It’s only been, what, like half an hour?” He said as he inspected the now dent-less plate of the armour.  
“Sir, It has been two hours and 34 minutes since you have entered the workshop,” Jarvis replied, sounding exasperated. Tony wasn't surprised. When he really got into the zone, it felt like only 5 minutes had gone by but really it was 5 hours and he’d upgraded the armour, designed 3 new arrows and a bow for Clint, and programmed an AI into a wifi modem.  
He stretched, back cracking loudly, and stood up.  
“She up?”  
“It appears that she is. Dr Banner is currently doing a post-op check up. He has also requested your presence.”  
“Has he now?” Tony grinned, and strode towards the door.  
The elevator dinged a couple seconds later, and Tony stepped out onto the medical floor. He spotted Bruce standing in the hallway, holding a clipboard and generally looking agitated.  
“What’s up, green-bean?” Tony asked, coming to a stop next to Bruce and peering over his shoulder at the clipboard. Bruce tilted it away in annoyance and turned so that he was facing Tony.  
“It’s about Kat. There’s... something you need to see.”  
Tony stares at Bruce.  
“That is not a good phrase,” Tony squints “Or expression, She’s stable, isn't she? I got Jarvis to check but-”  
“She’s fine, Tony.” Bruce cuts him off. “It’s not her new injuries I’m worried about.”  
Tony raised an eyebrow.  
“Look, you just have to see. Then talk to her,” Bruce scrubbed a hand through his hair, “She’s not the most… talkative person.”  
Bruce flips the chart over to show a picture of someone’s upper back and shoulders, covered in scars.  
Tony felt sick.  
“Is that-”  
“Kat. Unfortunately, yes, It is.” Bruce sighed, purposely not looking at the images.  
“Those look like whip marks, Bruce, what the hell happened to this kid?!” Tony snapped, now pacing up and down the hallway. “And bite marks? Bruce-”  
“From the spacing and pattern of the bite, they look to be from dogs.” Bruce was standing still, looking more resigned than Tony had seen him since, well, ever.  
Tony was still pacing and muttering to himself. He didn't stop when Steve entered the hallway.  
“We should try to find her family.”  
Both Tony and Bruce turned to stare at Steve, and Tony watched as Bruce wordlessly passed the clipboard to him.  
Tony saw the moment Steve realised who the scars belonged to, his face going pale.  
“Steve, look at these. Do you really think that she has parents? And if she does, should we really be notifying them if they let this happen?” Tony said, moving to stand near Steve, slowly extracting Bruce’s clipboard from his hands before he broke it.  
“I’m going to talk to her, and hopefully it’s not as bad as we think-”  
“Not as bad?!” Steve nearly yelled, eyes blazing, “How can it not be bad? Tony, these are whip marks! We don’t know-”  
“Steve, trust me, I know,” Tony snapped, glaring at Steve, “But there’s no way to figure out what happened unless we talk to her. Just let me handle this, ok?” Tony finished, anger fading slowly.  
The three of them stood in tense silence for a minute until Tony moved towards the door.  
“Well, if there aren’t any objections, I’ll be visiting our guest now.”  
A hand on his arm stopped him.  
“Tony, are you sure that you can do this?” Steve asked as Tony and Bruce stared at him. “You aren’t exactly-”  
“Exactly what, Steve?” Tony snapped, tearing his arm away from the grip. The shouting match was interrupted, surprisingly, by Bruce.  
“Steve, Kat seems to like Tony the most, as surprising-  
“Hey!”  
“-As it is, I understand why. He is the one who got her out of the hydra base, and the rest of us are Shield. Tony can do this. Just-”  
“Are we forgetting the fact that she pulled a knife on him last time she was in medical?!” Steve asked, incredulously.  
“No one is forgetting that, Steve! She was having a nightmare. Judging by her scars, it was not a good one!” Tony nearly shouted, spinning to face Steve. “She woke up from a nightmare in a strange place with a stranger sitting beside her. You can’t blame her for wanting to get the fuck out of there!” When Steve looked properly abashed, he steamrolled on. “I probably would have done a hell of a lot worse if it were me!” Tony was shouting now, glad for sound-proof walls. “And since we did try to chase her down, I think her pulling a knife was completely reasonable!” Tony finished, throwing up his arms and pacing down the hallway.  
“Now, if anyone has any objections that actually make sense,” Tony glared at Steve “I will be going now.”  
When no one complained, he plastered on a smile and strode through the door. Kat was staring at him as he walked in, the bed in a reclined sitting position. He moved slowly, broadcasting his movements. He figured that she probably wouldn't make a run for it this time, considering she was fresh out of surgery and was wearing a hospital gown, but he didn't want to take any chances. When he reached the chair beside the bed, he spoke.

“You feeling ok? Needing a drink or food or something?” Wow, that was bad. He could almost see Steve’s point. Almost. When he didn't hear a response, he turned to see Kat shaking her head at him. She looked tired, and her face was drawn in a frown.  
“Not a talker? That’s fine. Just lets me talk more, and if you’ve met Pepper, which you probably haven't, she’d say that was not a good thing.”  
She shook her head again, but her face was more relaxed, the corners of her mouth almost a smile. Well, that was enough encouragement for Tony.  
“So, kid, we’re gonna need to talk, and although I am pretty damn good at it, I can’t keep up a conversation with you if you keep doing the impression of a sea witch’s victim.”  
Kat had knitted her brows together, seeming confused.  
“Sea witch? Ya know, Ursula, the little mermaid, Disney, great movie, really.”  
Kat only looked more confused. Kind of like Steve did if you made a reference he didn't get. That was interesting.  
“Ok then! Enough about that, I need to know some things first. Like your name, full name, I mean, If you know it.”  
The frown was back at that, but she spoke anyway, in the same rough-around-the-edges, halting way she had before.  
“My name- my name is Katalin Blanchard.”  
Ah-ha! There was the accent, faint though it is, with her pronunciation that was definitely french.  
“French, then? Long way from home, all the way across the pond.”  
She looked confused, at that, but her eyes widened when she presumably realised what he meant.  
“No, I'm not- not-”  
“Not from France?” Tony supplied, cutting her off before she could get too frustrated. It was like she knew what she wanted to say, just couldn't find the words to do it. She nodded.  
“Can you speak French better than English? I know enough, if that would work better for you.”  
Tony asked.  
“No, I speak it the same. I’m not, good. With words. Or speaking.”  
Kat said, and wow. That was the most he had ever seen her talk. That was good.  
“So, not France-French, so, what then. Moroccan? Haitian? Cajun? French-Canadian?”  
She nodded.  
“Canadian, eh? Well, that’s good. I’m presuming that you don’t have any official ID, or a Passport, or anything like that, but-”  
She stopped him, digging in her coat which had been folded neatly along with her clothes on the table beside her bed. Smugly, she pulled something out of a pocket and held it up to him. Tony broke out laughing.  
“Ha! Lis-listen. That- that is not an official ID!” She frowned, but her lips were twitching up and her eyes were sparkling so Tony was sure she was also trying to hold back laughter, “That, that is a Library card. Kid, you’ve gotta know this. You can’t get past international borders with a library card!” He stopped laughing when he felt the bed shake, turning his head in concern to see Kat, shaking in the bed with her hands covering her face, tears running down her cheeks. She looked up, and she was laughing, brown-green eyes crinkled up around the edges, nose scrunched up.  
How she was, right then, cheerful and carefree, laughing over the fact that her only piece of ID was a library card, she looked her age. She should be in school, looking like this every day, laughing with friends and trying not to get hit in the head by a dodgeball.  
When she stopped laughing, looking surprised at herself, Tony remembered the scars and realised that this might be the first time she had laughed in awhile. These thoughts, while unintentional, soured his mood fast enough for Kat to pick up on it. She sighed, and folded her hands in her lap, probably already anticipating what he wanted to ask.  
“Ok, well, this was going to have to happen eventually. So-”  
“You want to know why I am fighting Hydra.” Kat cut him off bluntly, staring him down in a way that unnervingly, reminded him of Natasha.

“Yep. Steve wanted to try and find your family, but I'm guessing that’s not somewhere we want to go.” Tony answered, resisting the urge to fiddle with something or tap on the arc reactor.  
Kat’s eyes went cold, her face closing up.  
“You have seen the scars, then. Yes?” When he nodded, she continued. “They killed my family. I want to see them burn.”  
She didn't trip over any of the words this time, but she was careful with them. Her eyes blazed as if challenging him to say something. Well, he wasn't one to disappoint.  
“I’m not going to say “sorry for your loss” or something like that, if that’s what you’re expecting,” Tony scrubbed his hand through his hair, “I didn't know your parents. I don’t really know you, either, so I can’t really say sorry,” Tapping his reactor, he levelled his eyes with Kat. “What I can say is that it sucks. It sucks that you have your scars, It sucks that your parents are dead. No one can change that. An apology from someone who didn't do anything isn't going to change that. All I can do is tell you that as long as you’re in the tower, you’ll be safe. You’ll be fed, and you won’t have to worry about finding a place to stay the night since I’m guessing you don’t exactly have a home.”

She started at that and glared slightly, and Tony knew he was correct. He was about to say more, but Jarvis spoke before he could.  
“Sir, the team is waiting on you to begin debrief.”  
Tony sighed, and stood.  
“Listen, you can stay here until you heal, and Fury’s going to want to talk to you after. Jarvis is an AI, he runs the place, just ask him if you need anything. Until then-” Tony scooped up a tablet from the counter and wiped it of any important files before passing it to Kat. She looked surprised, and turned it over in her hands.  
“-You can use this. It’s a tablet, you can go on the internet or watch movies or whatever you like.” He said, turning the tablet on and showing off a few buttons before dashing out the door.


	5. Chapter 5

I had been nearly 4 hours later, well into the afternoon, bordering on evening, when there was a knock on the not-glass of his workshop. He spun around in his chair to face Steve through the door, scattering holograms everywhere. Tony grinned, watching Steve key in the passcode and step through the door, eyes locked on the light dancing around the room. No matter how many times Steve saw the holograms, he was still entranced by them. Honestly, it was a bit adorable.  
Tony cleared his throat, and Steve dropped his hand from where he had been about to touch a schematic as if burned.  
Tony rolled his eyes.  
“You can touch if you want, you know. Not like you can break it.” Tony said, standing up and saving his work with little flicks as he walked past Steve and to the door. He’d learned his lesson about resisting when one of the team came to get him a long time ago. Better just to go peacefully. He at least kept his dignity that way.  
“So, why’d you have to fetch me this time?” Tony asked, glancing at Steve as he fell into step beside him.  
“Oh, right. Ms Potts is here, she says she needs us to sign off on the new toys.”  
“You do know you can call her Pepper, right?” Tony said, and smiled. Pepper being here was going to make his day. Actually, probably his whole damn week, if he was being honest. Pepper was the best.  
“Anyways, that’s great! Too bad Thor’s still in Asgard. Kids love him. We could make a killing with fake hammers.”  
The elevator opened on the common floor, showing Pepper and Natasha laughing at something Steve and Tony couldn't see. Well, Pepper was laughing, but Natasha had a small little half-smile and for her, that was full out howling. It was creepy  
Pepper glanced over at him, and Tony quirked an eyebrow when she burst back into giggles, almost bending double. Steve, walking next to him, had an expression of confused amusement on his face.  
Natasha was still smirking when he and Steve reached the pair of them, which honestly worried Tony. Just a little. But it's not the smirk she gives people before she stabs them in the neck, and Pepper, lovely Pepper is there, so Tony figured he probably wasn't going to die. Not today, at least.  
Pepper finally managed to get control of her laughter, and thrust a stuffed toy at his chest when he got close enough. Tony saw a flash of red and yellow before it was in his arms and out of his sight, and when he brought it up to eye level Pepper covered her mouth with her hand and giggled again.  
It was a mini-him. Bright red and obnoxious yellow, sewn together and much softer than the real thing. As he turned it over in his hands, Natasha reached over and squeezed its chest. The arc-reactor lit up, and it repeated a terrible one-liner in a bland robotic voice.  
“I should be offended, really. I mean, really. My witty one-liners are really not that bad. The glowing is a good touch, though.” Tony said, just as he spotted the box on the coffee table.  
“Please tell me there’s one of the Capsicle here.”  
Natasha just smirked, and again, creepy as hell, and tossed him a red, white, and blue plush version of Steve. Tony broke out laughing.  
“Please tell me his talks too, ‘cause if it doesn't, I will make it.” Tony said in between snorts.  
Pepper, having semi-recovered from her fits of laughter, grinned and pressed the shield where it was attached to mini-cap's back.  
Steve blushed, and Tony tossed mini-cap to him.  
“So, do Legolas and Green Bean not get the pleasure of seeing theirs?” Tony asked, peering into the box. Natasha rolled her eyes at the nicknames.  
“Bruce has signed off on his already, and went back to his lab, but Clint… actually, Jarvis, where is Clint?” Pepper spoke up, looking at the ceiling.  
“Agent Barton appears to be in Miss Blanchard’s room.” Jarvis replied.  
Pepper turned to look at him, while Steve looked mildly alarmed, and Natasha only raised an eyebrow.  
“Tony, who is this “Miss Blanchard” and why is Clint in her room? Actually, why does she have a room in the first place?” Pepper asked, voice heavy with scepticism and disapproval.  
Tony threw his hands up in surrender.  
“No! This is not whatever you think it is!”  
“And what, Mr Stark, do I think this is?” Asked Pepper, as she crossed her arms over her chest.  
“I don’t know! Based on my track record, it could be a wide range of things and I do not want to think about what you might be thinking because that way lies pain, pep. pain, and things that I cannot remember and you don’t want to, like that time-”  
Steve, thankfully, cut off his rambling before he could tell everyone currently in the room about the great Panama Disaster of ‘08 by clearing his throat.  
“Miss Potts-”  
“Steve, you know you can call me Pepper.”  
“Yes, sorry. Do you remember, around a month ago, the kid we brought back from that Hydra base?”  
Pepper turned from looking at Steve to glaring at Tony.  
“No, in fact, I did not. Tony, do you know why I do not remember this?”  
“-Uhhhhhh… You were in Singapore at the time and you don’t like me calling you when it’s not an emergency? Honestly, the window wasn't even all that damaged it-”  
Pepper put her face in her hands.  
“Tony, what happened to the window?”  
“Well, the kid -Kat, her name is Kat, we found her in the Hydra base, you know about the Hydra base, don’t you Pep? Anyway, she was pretty injured so she kinda passed out from blood loss and/or exhaustion and/or malnutrition, probably all three, on the quinjet and when she woke up from a nightmare on the med floor she kinda pulled a knife on me, stole some food, and bolted. By jumping out the window.”  
Pepper looked up quickly.  
“Please tell me she was ok after that.”  
“Well, she landed ok and managed to lose Steve, so yeah, we’re pretty sure the window didn't make anything worse.”  
Pepper couldn't contain her relief and sighed before looking worried again.  
“And she’s here now because…”  
“Remember that doombot attack a couple hours ago? Well, she kinda ran into the fight, took out a ton of doombots, rescued some civilians and a shield agent, and got hurt. Again. She’s in medical now.”  
“Is she ok?”  
Tony moved closer to Pepper, and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, looking straight into her eyes.  
“She’s fine. Broken leg, some bruising, and a puncture through her side that luckily didn't hit anything important. As long as she doesn't try to jump out the window, she’ll be fine.”  
Pepper smiled him.  
“Well, then you should probably stay away. You tend to have the type of personality that makes people want to jump out windows.”  
Tony scowled at her. She just laughed in response before patting him on the cheek, bundled up a sheaf of paperwork, and turned to leave, leaving him, Steve, and Natasha standing around the box of toys.  
“So, Jarvis. What exactly have our residents Sylvester and Tweety Bird been doing?” He asked, already heading towards the elevator. Natasha rolled her eyes at his reference, while Steve grinned.  
“It seems that Agent Barton brought food, assuming correctly that Miss Blanchard would not ask for any herself, and owing to your earlier comments they are now watching the Little Mermaid.”  
Tony was a bit stunned at that answer, but he turned to the others, opening his arms and grinning, still walking backwards towards the elevator.  
“So, who's up for movie night?”

Natasha, unfortunately, had shield business that she couldn't avoid, even though she did really want to meet Kat. Steve was slightly cautious, having cited the knife-pulling and self-defenestration incident, but over all willing.  
After asking Jarvis exactly what kind of foods Clint had brought, Tony got Jarvis to pop some popcorn and the two of them headed to the medical floor with a large bowl of popcorn, Steve carrying extra bowls to share out.  
When they got to the room, they found Kat, sitting up in her bed and staring at the screen, a look of pure awe on her face, while Clint perched on the counter next to her with the food, occasionally passing her bits that she instantly popped into her mouth. She glanced over when he and Steve came in, but she smiled, and Clint passed her another cracker/cheese/pepperoni sandwich thing. Tony flopped into the chair on Clint’s side of the bed, and Steve took the other.  
When Tony shoots a questioning look at Clint, he leaned down so he could whisper.  
“She wouldn't have asked for food.”  
Tony simply nodded and glanced at Kat. She had scooted slightly away from where Steve had sat, but aside from that and glancing around, she hadn't reacted to them. Tony counted that a success.  
Tony passed a smaller bowl of popcorn to Steve, and Kat craned her head to see what was in the bowl.  
“Is this… uh, I don’t know the word,” Kat paused as she searched for the word, frustration making her brow furrow.  
She tried again, but in French.  
“Est ce maïs?”  
The accent was still there, but not, as Tony first thought, purely french. It was somewhere in the middle, making her sound French when she spoke English and English when she spoke French. It was kinda strange.  
Tony popped a piece of popcorn into his mouth and turned back to the movie when Clint answered.  
“Corn? Yeah, it’s corn. When you make it like this, we call it “popcorn”. We put butter on it too.”  
“Pop.. corn.” Kat tested the word as Clint reached down and grabbed a handful, and shoved it all into his mouth.  
Tony held up the bowl, and Kat took a small handful and picked through it suspiciously as she looked towards the screen.  
She had leaned forwards, and she was obviously fascinated with the movie. She was still eating whatever Clint passed her, not even looking at it before she popped it into her mouth. That was surprising. Tony had been certain that she would be more careful in accepting food, but she must have been hungrier than he thought.  
Kat tensed when the movie switched scenes to the prince’s ship, and the beeping from the monitor sped up slightly. Her eyes were tracking the mop-dog intensely and she had drawn her arms protectively around her.  
Right. Bruce said the scars were canine. Well, it was time to respond to overly-emotional situations the way he always did. With insensitivity and ill-timed jokes.  
“Not a dog person?”  
Kat flinched, and focused on him, and where the hell did she get a knife?! She didn't point it at anyone, though, just gripped it tightly, and seemed to be calming down, so Tony figured it was mostly alright. Steve obviously did not feel that way, because he stood abruptly, knocking his bowl to the floor with a loud clang. Goddammit. Kat turned, sitting up and bending her leg in one fluid motion. The tension in the room was palpable, and the heart monitor beeped faster and faster.  
“Hey! Katalin, Kate, Kat, Kitty!”  
Tony rattled off the names, and Kat’s attention snapped to him like a rubber band, her eyes blazing but uncertain.  
“You’re okay, right? You’re fine. Everyone’s fine. Steve, sit down or get the fuck out.”  
Tony snapped at Steve, who had gotten into a fighting stance. Like that was going to help.  
“Hey!” Tony snapped his fingers when Kat turned to look at Steve, who thankfully was taking his advice and sitting down. “Eyes over here, I’m the one that’s talking.” Her head snapped around to look at him again. At this rate, poor kid was going to get whiplash. “No one’s going to hurt you. We’re ok. You’re okay, right?”  
She nodded, slow and cautious, but not as fearful as he had been seconds before. Somehow, the knife had disappeared again, probably hidden somewhere in the folds of the blanket. Probably. Hopefully. At least Steve had sat down again.  
“So, you’re really not a dog person, are you?”  
Kat looked at him, confused until there was a flash of realisation, and her eyes twinkled.  
“No. You could say I’m a cat person.”  
Kat replied, something in her tone that felt like an inside joke, a deeper meaning than the obvious “Kat is a cat person” joke, but hey, he could work with that.  
“Hey! That was a joke! Great! See, we’re fine.” Tony said, and shot a glare at Steve, who at least had the decency to look slightly ashamed.  
Kat looked between them and giggled. A quick little snort of laughter that broke whatever tension remained.  
Tony couldn't help himself. He started laughing too, and Clint and Steve followed quickly. Jarvis un-paused the movie, and they settled into watch, occasionally serenaded by Clint belting out some of the more popular songs.  
At least the kid had a sense of humour. He could work with that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for reading! Just a FYI, I've never actually seen the little mermaid. I know enough about it that I can make references, and I know the characters, but I really have no clue where anything happens in the movie. I should probably get around to watching it at some point, but who knows when that will be.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fury is a drama queen and Jarvis makes a friend

“I’ve heard you’ve found our ghost”

Tony let out an undignified squawk, spinning away from the coffeemaker to see Fury standing casually in the middle of the room. In his tower. What the fuck.

Tony crossed his arms and glared at Fury.

“Official consulting hours are between 8 and 5. What do you want?”

Tony asked, turning back towards the coffeemaker. If he had to deal with Fury this early in the morning, he needed caffeine.

He rolled his eyes when Fury slammed down a paper file next to him. Seriously, who even used paper files anymore? Fury. Fury did, that paranoid, one-eyed asshole.

Tony glanced at the clock, sighed, and turned towards the files. Steve would be back from his run soon, Clint would be back from whatever the fuck he did when he wasn't at the tower, Bruce normally came up in the morning for caffeine and science chat, and Natasha was... possibly in the tower. Possibly. He could handle this until everyone else got back. And then he would upgrade his security. Again. 

Tony flipped through the packet, quickly scanning through the files.

Becket, Miller, Anderson, Lincoln, Ryans, Bradley, Turner. Shield arrest records. Ahh-ha. So that’s why Fury was here.

“Should I know these people?” Tony asked, still leafing through the files, noting the security camera stills where they had captured various Hydra agents being carted around, conveniently shielding the perpetrator from view. 

“More than 20 known Hydra operatives, all found inside Shield buildings within the greater New York area. All restrained, most unconscious. Whoever got them in was never caught on camera. This sound familiar to you?”

Tony closed the files with a smack after letting Jarvis scan them, and spun around to walk to the fridge. “Nope! Why, need better security? He chirped, rummaging through the fridge. 

Fury glowered.

“I know you know who did it, Stark.”

Tony closed the fridge door, turning back to Fury and crossing his arms.

“Now, why would you think that?” Tony asked. 

“You know damn well why!” Fury slammed his hand down on the countertop. “Just tell me who the  _ fuck _ did it.”

Tony rolled his eyes.

“If I could, I would, but I can’t, so I ‘shant. Seriously, whoever it is, they’re doing you a favour.”

Fury’s glare hardened.

“They’re doing us a  _ favour _ ? No. Whoever this is, if they’re mutant, enhanced, or something we don’t know about yet, they can get in and out of Shield  _ with _ Hydra agents, all without a trace. We are blind here, Stark. If Hydra finds them first and figures out how they do it? They could get an army in our doors without setting off a single alarm. You tell me how that’s doing us a favour.”

Tony swallowed. He hadn't thought about it like that.

“Well, when you say it like that, it does sound pretty bad. But…” Tony paused, considering. “Shield’s “ghost”? From what I’ve seen, they’re not a threat. To Hydra? Maybe. To you? Definitely not. Whoever they are, they’re obviously against Hydra for a reason, and, if you can’t catch them, do you really think Hydra will?” 

Tony spoke, defiantly staring Fury in the eye. “Maybe I have found them. Maybe I haven't. And until you can prove that I know something., I’m giving you nothing. So, if you could kindly fuck off, that would be great.” Tony finished, levelling Fury with a look that said “this conversation is over” in very loud, very colourful language. 

Thankfully, the Director took the hint and spun around towards the elevator, coat billowing dramatically. 

Fury paused before the open doors, glancing over his shoulder. 

“Stark, if anything happens from this, It’s on you.”

With that, Fury strode into the elevator, and the doors closed sharply. Tony had to hand it to him. Fury really knew how to make an exit. He suspected Jarvis in helping him with that.

Sighing, Tony turned back to where the coffee maker had finished brewing, poured a mug, and hopped up onto the counter. Fury did have a point. The misadventure when Kat was in the tower last time proved it. She was a security risk, pure and simple, but that did not change the fact that she was just a kid. Tony scrubbed his hand through his hair. 

“Sir?” 

Tony looked up, startled out of his thoughts by Jarvis. “Yeah, J. What’s up?”

“Miss Blanchard…” The AI paused, which concerned Tony. “It might be best if you saw for yourself, sir.”

Unable to keep the surprise off his face, he turned to the nearest screen, where Jarvis had helpfully projected a feed of the room. Kat was propped up in the bed, arms crossed over her chest defensively. She was looking straight at the camera when she spoke.

“Ja-Jarvis?” Her voice was soft when she spoke, her faint accent making her stutter. 

“Yes, Miss Blanchard?” Jarvis asked, a bit colder than usual, though he could be a bit overprotective. Kat looked surprised when he spoke, as if she hadn't been expecting a response.

She took a deep breath, thinking before she spoke. “I-I am sorry.” 

Tony started, moving closer. Jarvis was obviously startled as well, as he paused much longer than he usually would, and with much less ice in his voice than before.

“...I beg your pardon?”

Kat looked down and fidgeted with the edge of the blanket. “I am sorry. For when I was here last. For breaking the- the-” Kat paused, frustrated, “Door. and the window. A-and for the knife. I-I wouldn't have used it.”

“...Do you wish me to pass on your apology to Mr Stark?” Jarvis asked, tentative. 

Kat shook her head. “No. I-I’m saying it to you. You… are part of this place. I hurt it. I hurt-I hurt you.”

The silence was palpable, but Kat didn't say anything else. 

“Jarvis, buddy, did I just hear what I think I heard?” Tony asked, slightly incredulous. No one except him, as far as he knew, had ever apologised to any of his AIs, not knowing how complex they were either caused by ignorance or purposeful misdirection on Tony’s part. 

Jarvis didn't respond. Tony recognised his silence. Jarvis, with all his processing power, so much more than a human brain, had no idea what to say. 

“Sir…”

Tony smiled. “Go ahead J. This one’s all you.” After a pause, he added, “You can tune me out if you want.”

Kat was still looking down at her hands when Jarvis spoke.

“I appreciate, and accept your apology. Might I ask what made you assume that I would need, or want an apology?”

Kat looked up, expression relieved, before looking confused.

“Why would I not think that?” She looked up again, stilling the movement of her hands.

“Well, as you know, I am an AI, or Artificial Intelligence. As far as most people know, I am nothing more than lines of code.” Tony snorted at that. Jarvis was much, much more than that. “Most people would never think to apologise to me, as they assume that as I am not human, I do not feel.” Kat, oddly enough, made a face before Jarvis continued. “So, I will repeat myself. What made you think differently?” 

Kat furrowed her brow in thought. “You are an AI? In-Intelli-Intelligence-” she sounded the word out with difficulty. “-is still intelligence, artificial or no.”

Jarvis was silent for a second more, before speaking.

“Thank you for explaining your thoughts to me. If that is everything you wanted, I will be available for anything you might need.”

Kat smiled up at the camera. “Yes, thank you.” 

With that, Jarvis cut the feed. Tony grinned proudly, beginning to throw up the files Jarvis had scanned during his earlier discussion with Fury on his tablet. Honestly, the kid was kinda growing on him. Was it worrying that he cared more about how people interacted with his ‘bots than if they pulled a weapon on him? Yeah, probably. Still, that method of determining morality hadn't failed him yet. Granted, he only had Pepper and Natasha as baselines, but neither of them had killed him yet, so he was probably good. 

Tony stretched, and groaned obscenely as his back made horrendous cracking noises. He opened his eyes to see Clint openly staring at him in disgust. Tony just winked and bent the other way, feeling as his back made loud popping noises. Clint shook his head, taking a bowl of yogurt out of the fridge and hopping on the counter to eat it. 

“Got a visit from Fury today,” Tony said, feigning nonchalance and still flicking through the files on the tablet, picking out anything he deemed important.

Clint, after swallowing his mouthful of yogurt-granola, cocked his head questioningly. “The hell did he want?”

“He knows about Kat.” Seeing Clint’s vague shock, he continued. “Well, he knows that I know who’s been sneaking in and out of Shield with Hydra agents. He doesn't actually know who it is. Or that they’re here.”

“Oh.” Clint shrugged, and scooted over for Natasha as she entered the kitchen. “So he wants to bring her in. You gonna set up some false leads?” 

Tony glanced up at the pair of them. “Yeah, probably. He did make some decent points, though, I mean, she did manage to get over 20 Hydra agents inside Shield without getting caught, or seen, once. I know, I know, she’s a kid, but age means fuck-all to Fury if she poses that big a risk to Shield. You know that. And-” Tony stopped, angrily swiping through security upgrades, “This would be one hell of a lot easier if Fury would stop breaking into my goddamn tower.”

He suspected one of the tower interns had something to do with it. Or one of the security guys Happy usually dealt with. He should really get on that. Tony, from his advantageous position near the coffee maker, slid Bruce a cup as the other man shuffled into the room without looking up. 

“Sir, with all due respect, the Director is not going to get anywhere near Miss Kat. I will make sure of that.” Jarvis sounded… kind pissed. “Do I have access to protocol 14-12-6-6-21?”

Tony grinned up at the nearest camera. Yeah. Jarvis was pissed. “You have very enthusiastic permission, J. Override foxtrot-uniform 6.”

Jarvis made a pleased little hum, and Tony looked around at his teammates. Bruce was still too half asleep to really notice anything, and Natasha just raised a single, perfect eyebrow, but Clint looked slightly terrified. Tony counted that as a win. 

“Stark, the hell did you just let your robot do?”

Tony just smirked wider. “Nothing I wouldn't do.”

“You know, unsurprisingly, that does not make me feel any better. Mind giving us any helpful hints?” Clint crossed his arms, sending a furtive glance towards the microwave.

“Nope!” Tony chirped, sliding over on the counter to where Bruce was leaning to share his findings. “Guess you’ll just have to find out if our fuzzy friend tries to pop over uninvited again.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for reading! Since I am a nerd, the codes in this chapter (and probably future chapters as well) actually mean something.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, sorry this is late. I know it's not like I have a schedule or anything, but still. As always, please enjoy!

After inhaling his third cup of coffee, and passing Bruce his second, Tony steered Bruce back around to sit at the table as Steve walked in, because the man was even worse at Tony at staying out of the lab, even though he was better at eating and sleeping, and Tony needed the whole team here to talk about this. Steve was tense, his expression pinched and Tony knew that he would have racoon-rings around his eyes if he could get them. Damn serum.

“Rough night capsicle?” Tony joked, trying to lighten the mood while leaning over towards the toaster to snag a piece of toast.

Steve looked over, a pained expression on his face. He looked away just as quickly, busying himself inside the fridge picking out his breakfast.

Tony sighed and threw the toast onto a plate. “Ok, we’re going to have to discuss this at some point, and honestly? I want to get this over with.” He glanced around at everyone, from Steve’s hurt face to Bruce’s tired look of mild confusion/concern.

He turned to look at Steve, and Steve honest-to-god _winced_ , like he was expecting Tony to call him out or something. Tony narrowed his eyes at Steve because the kicked-puppy look was in overdrive right now and he was pretty sure he was not the cause. Natasha shot him a look, and Tony crossed his arms defensibly.

“Ok, sit-rep for Bruce and Steve since they just got here. Our friend Director one-eye, who we all love so very much, popped over for a chat this morning.”

Just like that, Steve’s kicked-puppy look was gone, replaced with a straight back and a hard expression. Tony rolled his eyes

“Relax, Cap. It’s not a mission. He was here about Kat.” Tony paused, waiting for what he said to sink in.

Bruce looked up, confused. “What? No one told Hill about the Shield thing. How’d Fury know?”

“Well, he doesn't know that it’s Kat, Fury just knows that I know who he’s looking for. And he’s looking for Kat.” Tony shrugged, then continued. “Even if Mr Spy can’t get Jarvis out of his system, which he can’t, ‘cause Jarvis is the best, he still knows what files I access. And those include all the files of the Hydra agents Kat’s caught. Fury’s at least smart enough to put _that_ together.”

Steve frowned. “You’re saying Fury’s going to try to bring her in? She’s just a kid.”

Tony sighed. “Yeah, but Fury doesn't know that. All he knows is that there’s someone out there who can get Hydra agents in and themselves out of his buildings without triggering anything. Even if Fury did know that she was a kid, would that really matter to him?” He looked around at the rest of them. Steve looked mildly constipated again, Bruce looked concerned, and Clint and Natasha were having a secret conversation using only their eyebrows.

Bruce took his glasses off, studiously cleaning them on his shirt before he speaks. “And you don’t want him to?”

Tony blinked at him. “Hell no! I mean no offence to Shield-” he nodded at the duo, still seated side-by-side on the countertop, dressed in pajamas that were probably hiding enough weapons to stand against the armor in terms of sheer number, and they nodded back, looking amused, “-but Shield is far from perfect, and I know that if they got their hands on her, they will not give a damn about her besides finding out just how she ticks.” Tony looked down, forcibly lowering his hand from where it had come up to tap an anxious pattern against the reactor. He spared a glance at Bruce and was glad to see that while he looked distinctly uncomfortable, there was not even a hint of green on his skin.

He straightened. “To them, she’s a threat first, an asset second, and a person third. The fact that she’s a minor won’t even register.”

Natasha levelled a look at him. “So you _don’t_ want to find out how she did it?”

Tony rolled his eyes. “Course I do. I’m an engineer. I just won’t lock her up and experiment on her without her permission.” He shot a glance at Bruce. “And if keeping her existence from Shield prevents other people from doing just that, I’ll do it.”

Natasha arched an eyebrow. “She can still break into Shield. What if AIM or Hydra finds out how she does it? This girl has exposed a hole in our security. We need countermeasures, and to do that, we need her.”

“Yeah, that was exactly Fury’s stance as well.” Tony sighed. “I see his point, but still. There are better ways to develop countermeasures than locking people up.”

Natasha crossed her arms. “Like what?”

Tony rolled his eyes. “Like just _asking_ the kid. Just saying, “hey, you can do this thing, and if Hydra finds out how to do this thing, it’s gonna suck. Can you tell us how to stop the thing?” It’s literally that easy.” He paused. “Plus, I would very much not like the person who can break out of one of the most secure places in the world holding a grudge against me. Just a thought.”

“And if she says no?” Natasha cocked her head a bit, like she already knew the answer, and was only asking to see what Tony would say.

Tony shrugged and held up his hands. “Then she says no. I’m certainly not going to do anything about it. And besides, for all intents and purposes, she doesn't exist.”

It was true. He had looked, gotten Jarvis to look, and when he did not find so much as a profile in the background of a photo, he had looked for the holes. Bits of data with gaps in them, Like a hospital bed being filled but no record of the patient, parking tickets being paid for a licence plate that doesn't exist, places where there should be something when there wasn't. Even the people who were the best at disappearing left those. Hell, _Natasha_ left them, if you knew where to look. But there was no convenient kid-shaped missing piece because as far as he could tell, there had never been anything to wipe.

Natasha looked at him, considering. Then she nodded. “Ok.”

Tony arched an eyebrow. “Ok?”

She hopped off the counter, taking Clint with her. “Fury won’t find out anything from us.”

Tony watched as the pair left the kitchen, Clint snagging a piece of toast as he left. He looked around at Bruce who had scooped up the tablet and was muttering under his breath as he tapped at it, and Steve, who still looked slightly shell-shocked.

“What do you mean, she doesn't exist?” Steve was looking at him, and he looked so worried, unable to stop the tenseness of whatever kept him awake the night before from leaking into his voice.

“I mean, there isn't any record of her _anywhere_ . I started looking for birth certificates and other things from Canada after I got her full name, but Blanchard is, unfortunately, an extremely common name.” Tony held his hands out in a shrug. “The only thing I found that was mildly interesting was an article from a couple years ago about a tiger escaping from some zoo upstate, which, you know, slightly worrying ‘cause that means there’s an entire _tiger_ just wandering around somewhere. Nothing about her, though, or whoever her parents might have been.”

Steve snorted, and Tony was glad that he had at least been able to cheer him up a little before the tense expression was back on his face. Tony sighed. He was so not ready to do emotions this early in the morning.

“Look, Tony-” 

Tony cut him off. “-Look, _Steve-_ ” Steve flinched at his tone of voice, and that was so not his intention. “Look, Steve,” He repeated, softer than before, “Whatever you want to say, and it sounds like you’re going to apologise for something, which I probably didn't even notice, so can we just stop whatever emotional bullshit right here and call it good?” Tony said, spreading his hands out with a pleading expression.

Steve looked slightly abashed at that, but he still continued. “I just wanted to say, I’m sorry for what I said yesterday. Before you talked to Kat.” He looked at Tony, his eyes way to warm for how blue they were. “I was just worried. I didn't want you to get hurt.” He said, and Tony scoffed.

“I wasn't gonna get _hurt_. I’m wounded, deeply wounded, Steve, in that you think me incapable of defending myself against a child with a swiss-army knife.” He grinned as he said it, and to his relief, Steve smiled back.

Tony chugged the rest of his luke-warm coffee, sliding closer to Bruce after he waved him over. He raised his eyebrows when Bruce looked up, looking at Tony like he was confused he was even there. Tony smirked behind the mug. For all his scientific brilliance, Bruce could be remarkably scatter-brained. Especially before being properly caffeinated. Not like Tony could talk.

“Uh, Tony, I was going to go down and do some medical checks on Katalin. Just to make sure she’s healthy. I’d like you to come, if you don’t mind.” Bruce asked, and Tony blinked at him.

“Why do you need me? I mean I'll come, just not sure why you’d want me to.” He said and poured himself another cup of coffee.

Bruce scooped up his tablet and stood. “Well, she seems to like you best.” He grinned wryly. “And I’d really prefer not to get stabbed.

Tony shrugged and made to follow Bruce out of the kitchen. “Well, that’s a good enough reason for me.”

He was stopped by Steve, who had grabbed him around his wrist. Tony glanced at his captive arm, then back up to Steve. “You know, you really don’t have to grab me every time you want to say something. I mean, I’m not complaining, not at all, but it’s not a thing you have to do.”

Steve sighed and dropped Tony’s arm. “I just wanted to ask if I could come with you and Bruce. I wanted to apologise for overreacting last night.” He explained, and he looked so earnest it was painful.

“Yeah, sure, why the hell not,” Tony grumbled and began to follow Bruce towards the elevator. “Everyone’s apologising for something today.”

Tony, Steve, and Bruce stepped into the elevator, and the doors closed with a ding.


	8. Chapter 8

I will not be continuing this fic. I've bene thinking about it, and lots of the things that I've written so far just don't make sense with the character. I might restart it, and if I do, I'll link to it here. Thank you all for reading.


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